Tuesday, February 18, 2014

After the hotel's buffet breakfast, we gathered in the private dining room to begin the day with the daily journal entry (mine from the horrific travel experience to Senegal) and then a short text reading. We had a short study session "Why We Are Here?" with some readings related to our reactions to and interactions with those who live in poverty. Our guest speaker, Senyabou Maie Cisse, the Founder and Coordinator of USOFORAL was the guest speaker for the morning. A former high school teacher, she shared with us her story beginning with work with other women to create the Center for Mutual Health, a school in which 60%of the students were single mothers. Her work broadened with the creation of the Commission for Women and Development with outreach to local villages and contraception education. She provided us with a lesson on the history of the conflict in Casamance, an area at the southern end of Senegal which is where we are now. The area is mostly separated from the rest of the country by another country, The Gambia, which was under British rule. There are people is this region that believe the Casamance region should be separate and have initiated a 30 year period of unrest and violence. USOFORAL (Let's Join Hands), le Comite Regional de Solidarite des Femmes pour la Paix en Casamance (Regional Solidarity Committee of Women for Peace in Casamance) is a grassroots organization building on the role of Senegalese women as mediators and givers of life to create a peace movement that included expanded involvement of women in community activities. This was to lead to sustainable community development and brought together women of different ethnic groups who had not worked together, who spoke different languages, and who were suspicious of each other to live and work in harmony.

After her presentation, we got in our vans for a drive of 45-60 minutes out of Ziguinchor on what I later learned was a national highway. It was more or less a two lane road and more or less paved, but the skills of an Olympic slalom skier would have been useful to navigate the course around the deep unpaved potholes. We passed through some villages which we learned had been deserted due to the conflict with the rebels but now were re-populated. We passed several schools and learned a little about the education system. There is free public education which begins at age 7. Primary education continues for five years. In its efforts to promote public education, the government has emphasized quantity over quality. So classrooms are overcrowded and there is a reasonable chance children will not learn much. Attendance rates vary and may be very low in rural areas. For those who can afford, the better option is to pay for private education.

We finally arrived at our destination, the village of Baganha. I was in the second van. I could see a large group of women in brightly colored clothes standing next to the road near the first van. We all got out and within minutes this whole group broke into song, started clapping and dancing, and thus began our welcome and parade through the village, probably about 1/3 mile. The joy, the exuberance, the welcoming warmth of these women was one of the most powerful experiences I have ever had. We all joined in the parade, clapping and dancing. Many women had babies on their backs, and children were joining in on the edges of the crowd. We ended at a shaded open area with chairs arranged in a big circle. It took some time for everyone to finish dancing, greeting, shaking hands, and to finally sit down. The program was a series of presentations that included important men in the village, the village oman, and several leaders of the women's group with USOFORAL. USOFORAL had developed a large community garden in this village. This was one of the places where women of these various ethnic groups had come together to work together and to create this new source of revenue and food for the community. Every so often as a new speaker was introduced, women would break into song, or occasionally get up and dance. At the end, Ruth Messinger, the AJWS president spoke about the purpose of AJWS in supporting human rights. One member of our group presented gifts, orange AJWS wrist bracelets that have the words "Rights, Equality, Justice." We divided the group in two, half visited the garden and half visited some homes in the village and then we reversed. (I have had two power outages since I started writing this, brief, but very dark.) The garden was really quite large with tomatoes, onions, and cabbage and, we later learned, bees in the back. We heard from some women about the actual work and production done in the garden. There was an open air brick structure near the entrance, a community kitchen, and food preparation was just about finished. There were big pots of rice, plates of tomatoes, and some small fish on a paper on the floor that were tossed into a large pot of soup.

Our group just visited one home, the other group visited three. The home we visited was a man who had been displaced by the rebels, with two wives and 18 children. The home had a small living area occupied only by a motorcycle and a bicycle and 3 rooms that looked to be used as bedrooms. Cooking appeared to be done outdoors and we were told the "toilet" was also outdoors. As we approached the house there were about 8 people standing and not moving across the front of the house. It was not clear what they were doing, but then they went down on their knees on the small rugs and bowed; with that it became apparent this was one of the five Islam daily prayer sessions occurring. I took some great pictures out in the cooking area of this toddler holding a nearly empty stainless steel bowl with a little rice in it, and rice in and all around his mouth. During the time I was there (a few minutes) he did not appear to swallow or do anything with the rice at all. It was quite comical to see his face.

We had our final farewells after the visit concluded and piled back into the vans. After leaving the village, we drove a bit and pulled over to the roadside "rest stop" - one of many fields with palm trees and palm leaves and weeds all over. There were many private "stalls" for us to use. Then we ate lunch in the vans, grilled vegetable and chicken skewers. We continued on back to Ziguinchor uneventfully, and about ½ hour and then went to the Governor's Palace to meet with the governor. He has been here for about 4 years. We all went into his office and were sitting on a sofa and chairs. He was in an armchair. He initially seemed to be somewhat tired and bored with the information about the group and with some of the questions being asked. However when we got closer to the end of the visit and asked him some questions that more specifically involved the US and Senegal the man came to life, expressed passionate support for the Jews, Israel, and the US and would not stop talking. He had met the Israeli ambassador and had a gift from him on the wall. It was not clear from the meeting however, what exactly he was doing to work to the end of the conflict in his region. He did indicate the president, elected in 2012, was not doing enough. It was a fun and enlightening visit.

From there we went to the local crafts market. There were not many shoppers there, and a number of stalls selling wood carvings, some textiles, some little handmade dolls. Several of us bought a few things. I bought a mask made by the father of the man who was selling it and another wood carving of a fisherman, traditional to this area. As I had not had the opportunity to change money, I had to borrow some local money from one of the other women on the trip, Toni, who helped convince me to buy these things because I would be sorry if I didn't.

After the shopping journey we went back to the hotel. I needed to get some money to repay her, so Abdou, the guide, walked a few blocks with me to find the ATM and then we walked for about 30 minutes through the town. We went to the local port where he told me the story of the Senegal ferry boat disaster which I sort of remembered.

"The Senegalese ferry Joola capsized in a storm off the coast of Gambia on the night of September 26, 2002/ Out of the 1,034 passengers and crew on board, only 64 people have been rescued and approximately 400 bodies—many of them children—have been recovered. It is the country's worst maritime disaster and ranks as one of the world's worst ferry accidents of all time. When the disaster occurred the boat was carrying nearly double its official capacity of 550 passengers." (This is from the newspaper; his version had 6000 people on a boat that held 3000 and only 5-6 people survived). It was a terrible disaster any way one reports it. Many of those who died were students returning to school.

We got back to the hotel with a little time to spare before dinner at the hotel. The meal was just about the same as the night before, except instead of Captain's fish we had sole and instead of ratatouille we had green beans with polenta and manioc chips. We had a guest speaker, a journalist, Ibrahima Gassama. He has reported widely on the conflict in Casamance and has made contact with leaders of the rebels (or more politically correct) commandants. He spoke for about 45 minutes followed by a few questions. And with that the evening ended.

I have been learning so much about a country I knew so little about. The impact of the war and violence and the grassroots mobilization to promote peace and harmony is amazing. To be here with AJWS which supports such projects is an honor. Time to go to sleep.